Combat Boots

Sep 30, 2000

RAY: In the little Asian country of Tuvaniska, there are the two towns of Abba and Babba, a few miles apart on either side of a mountain. The preferred footwear in this region is the combat boot.

There are 20,000 people who live in Abba. And 1 percent of them have one foot only, so they wear, what? One boot. Half of the remaining people in the town wear no boots at all. They go barefoot.

The rest of the people wear two boots. Now you can figure out how many boots there are in Abba.

Okay. Let's go to Babba.

TOM: Okay. How many people live there?

RAY: That's what you're going to tell me! In Babba, 20 percent of the people have one foot. Of the remaining people, half of them wear no boots and half of them wear two boots -- and there are 20 thousand boots worn in Babba.